The present disclosure relates generally to a system for generating an incrementally completed 3D security mark.
Documents exist in both physical (e.g., printed) and electronic forms. During its lifecycle (i.e., the document in all its forms from creation to completion), one document may move between physical (e.g., paper) and electronic (e.g., computer file) forms several times and may also progress through several stages of a workflow (i.e., a defined set of stages, usually with task(s) at each stage, which a document must pass through during its lifecycle, to perform some useful purpose). Security features laden with information (e.g., bar codes) may be associated with the document, and may be used to move the document from one stage to the next in its workflow. As one example, sequential security features (e.g., sequential barcodes) may be added to the document at each stage in the workflow. This approach may be useful because each stage of the workflow can be associated with one of the sequential barcodes, and thus the status of the workflow can be monitored via the barcodes that have been added. As another example, a single static security feature (e.g., one barcode) may be used throughout the workflow to identify the item. This approach is sensitive to the use of “real estate” (layout area) on the physical form of the document, but does not enable one to monitor the status of the workflow via the security feature.